Tuesday, October 25, 2011

On January 7 Voice Afire will begin our first Broadway run - one week at the 45th Street Theater for Butterfly's Trouble, our revamped Big Apple version of The Pocket Madama Butterfly.

Rehearsals start Nov. 14, and it has been quite a journey. Along the way we have learned heaps. We now know how to advertise and find rehearsal and audition space, and find and rent theaters both on and off Broadway. We know how to advertise for actors, publicists, booking agents and singers - especially sopranos.

Butterfly's Trouble is being done on a very modest budget, although for us it is quite a stretch. We are renting a theater, renting 4 weeks of rehearsal space, and paying to showcase at the 2012 APAP Conference here in New York. We have hired a director, a stage manager, a designer, a lighting designer, a publicist, and a booking agent. Our performers are donating their time for an embarrassingly small amount that we call an "honorarium". And the time is considerable: 4 weeks of rehearsal and one week of performances. The money restrictions prevented us importing our talented Canadian crew.

So we advertised on the internet. And 50 sopranos applied to sing Cho-Cho-San! Of these we actually heard 20. And some were really wonderful. It was a difficult decision to make, but we wound up not only with a terrific Cho-Cho-San, but even a terrific understudy for Cho-Cho-San.

About Me

Ray Luedeke, one of the leading composers in North America, was born in New York City. His output runs the gamut from entertaining theater pieces for children, through a long list of sophisticated solo and chamber music to colorful, carefully crafted pieces for orchestra. Recordings of his music include Shadow Music with the Louisville Orchestra, The Transparency of Time with pianist Andre LaPlante and the Winnipeg Symphony, The Moon in the Labyrinth with harpist Judy Loman and the Orford String Quartet, Brass Quintet with the New Mexico Brass Quintet, Circus Music with the Hannaford Street Silver Band. Quartetto Gelato has recorded Ray’s brilliant arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and has performed it worldwide. In the summer of 2007, Ray started a new music theater company, Voice Afire Pocket Opera and Cabaret, and produced three shows, each reflecting a particular passion of the composer/arranger. I Confess, I Have Lived is based on the poetry of Pablo Neruda. The Pocket Madame Butterfly is an arrangement/adaptation of Puccini’s great masterpiece. Close Embrace is based on the Golden Age of Argentine Tango: tango dancing is a passion of Ray and Dulce.